As I go through the footage from this last summer I keep thinking about tips for filming I want to share. Getting quality footage is a major part of making a video look good. Even though we aren't pros its still fun to watch movies of Madtown riders killin it in HD. For me I think we need more diversity in the footage both in terms of riding, shot angles, and most importantly riders. Everyone has cameras these days so let's use them. Here are some things I learned about what makes a good shot in my opinion:

- Film. Even if you feel no one wants to watch this put a camera on a tripod and try a few new things in front of it. Heck you can always delete it if it doesn't work out. I like to show the progression of each rider in my movies so don't feel like you have to one up the entire crew.- Take turns filming. If you are riding and someone is filming (like manning a camera) offer to man the camera for a bit. If everybody takes a turn we can have lots of fun and get lots of good stuff. The best shots come when someone is actively filming very close to the riders.- Which reminds me, ride super close to the camera. It makes a big difference, I can't stress this enough. And go for it!- Be original in your shot angle. For example have your camera near something to give perspective on the edges of the shot. Close to the snow, a jump, a rail. etc. If you can control the aperture (and you know what that is), open it up and get a more focused shot. This would work well if you use a DSLR on a tripod and focus it on a jump or spot you are going to do a trick. You can mark a spot with your camera bag.- Be cognizant of lighting: Shoot into the sun for interesting effects or shoot with the sun behind you for the best standard lighting. Shoot a snow slash or a water splash right into the sun and see what happens!- Shot at a high frame rate for action shots but stick to at least 1280X720 pixels of resolution (standard HD). If you can shot at 120 frame per sec (fps) at 1280X720 and you are filming close shots this gives excellent slow motion footage. The new Gopro Hero 4 black can shoot 1920x1080 at 120 fps which is one of the best things about it. If you are shooting an interview or people hanging around go for higher resolution at 30 fps (29.97).- Shoot with raw mode. For Gopro this is called Protune. The video will be flatter but it will be the least compressed and work better for post processing. In the end it will look better. If you just want to put it on the web as is then shoot in the standard mode but for my movies I prefer raw since everything gets color corrected in post.- Multiple angles. If you and the others have multiple cameras, set them up at different angles. Its really cool to have the same trick at several angles. Even better, if you have the exact same camera make sure you turn the auto mode off and set the cameras to the raw settings (like Protune on Gopros) and set up the cameras about 30-45 deg apart. This will make it relatively easy to camera map or glide from one camera angle to the next in slow motion like the old Hadlow movies.- Check the lens to make sure it is clean- Provide me raw footage or parsed raw footage in the identical formatIf anyone wants to help editing I would be great full and teach you what I can

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